Argyle here. By my count(entries with A's only), there two triple A's and ten double A's; 49 in total. All those entries but the fill didn't suffer. The theme took up 79 squares. The grid doesn't look like a Tuesday but the solve was. Very good, Pawel.

Across:

1. File attachment icon : CLIP. A paper clip.

5. Caviar, e.g. : ROE

8. Inbox fillers : EMAILS

14. Turkish currency : LIRA

15. Train station abbr. : ARR. (arrival)

16. Update the factory equipment : RETOOL

17. Long-billed wader : IBIS

ibis in the myst

20. Computer adventure game : MYST

21. Not any : NONE

22. Ordered : BADE

27. Heavy drinker : SOT who might 36D. 27-Across sound : [HIC!]

28. South Seas resort island : TAHITI

39. Crimson Tide coach Nick : SABAN. Current head football coach of the University of Alabama.

I got off to a bit of a rough start on this one, wondering what the heck a CLIP (sans paper) was and whether PASTA SALAD was really a "staple" of picnics. But then things settled down and the rest of the puzzle was smooth sailing. I didn't notice the theme until I got to the reveal. I balked a bit at AAAA, but Argyle found a picture so they must exist. Never seen one at the battery display at the supermarket, however....

TTP, hand up for thinking of going tropical at first. Among our family, friends, and social groups we almost always have pasta salad at picnics along with potato salad. It's usually elbow macaroni or sea shell pasta, sometimes combined with tuna.When there is a large enough crowd I make a Greek pasta salad with roasted zucchini and bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, Kalamata olives and feta cheese dressed with olive oil. With all those ingredients, it's impossible to make a small amount.Off to the gym.

Saw there were lots of A's, especially in the long (theme) acrosses. Realized there were consistently 4 of them so was not surprised at the unifier clue. Other multi-A fill as well; ARIA, ARAL, SABAN, SALADA.Sorry, Abejo, no Earl Grey today.Nice Tuesday romp.

Got through this fairly easily with only a couple of minor hold ups. I always thought it was ERNESTo & Julio so ERNEST turns out to be a learning moment. Another issue was thinking Turkey's monetary units were Euro's, and 3D IRISH seemed to confirm it. Took a minute to two to unravel, but LIBYA got me back on track.

Did not realize there was a BAHAMA GRASS. Must be some difference between it and Bermuda Grass.Bermuda I got to know well, and disliked a lot when I played golf.

Lovely weather today. Our little corner has lucked out quite well this July. No complaints at all. HH & H were only occasional visitors. Hoping the trend continues into August.

I was looking for the theme as I solved, and it finally dawned on me at PAJAMA PARTY. (OK, so I'm not so quick on the uptake without my second cup of coffee...) But I totally missed the reveal until coming here, since it was filled by the across answers.

So thanks for the write-up and filling in the blank for me, Argyle! I just knew the PAJAMA PARTY link would be Anette, since that's what popped into my head when I wrote in the answer. But I thought for sure you'd use this link for MADAGASCAR...2:29

I learn something every day - all these years I have been using 9v batteries, only to find out they are just itty bitty AAAA's in disguise!

Spitz: Yes, no Earl Grey in the puzzle. However, I have had several cups today at home and will have several more. As far as I know, neither Lipton nor Salada make an Earl Grey tea. However, Red Rose does! As well as many others. I drink Teavana at home and I carry Twinings and Bigelow when I travel. I always carry tea bags to restaurants, just in case they do not have earl Grey.

IRISH and LIBYA got me started in the NW.

The entire puzzle was quite easy. The theme having 8 answers all with 4 A's was amazing.

I suppose this one might have been cheekily titled "NO USE" as it has every vowel (A-plenty) except U.

I thought things were steaming up a bit when I saw Tahiti (Gauguin and all that), body art and DIVAN, but the latter solved my T-T dilemma, and the blood pressure dropped.

DIVAN always reminds me of the one decent pop-punk song to come out of France in the 80s. "Ça plane pour moi" by Plastic Bertrand. Its title is a little obscure, but the line "I am the king of the divan" is clear enough. Check it out on YouTube.

The only (meh!) crosswordese I noted were "Orang". No-one I know does not use its full name Orang Utan. Orang = "forest" or "jungle" I think, Utan = Man. So it's pretty meaningless in condensed form. Maybe the inspiration for FORREST GUMP?

I always think that American Tea never recovered from the Boston Tea Party; universally insipid, and most restaurants don't realize that BOILING WATER must be applied to a PREHEATED vessel (such as a TEAPOT, for example) to extract the full flavor. Recommend going to a BRIT or INDIAN store and buying YORKSHIRE GOLD or PG TIPS.

By contrast, American Beer took only 70 years to recover from Prohibition - the "Craft Brews" are still a little over-hopped for my taste, but they at least have TASTE….

I recalled an urban legend about lantern batteries being composed of AA's (Apparently one cheapo brand does pack in AA's, but most don't), so did some research checking several sites. What I found was that usually (though not always) they do have 6 cells similar to AAAA inside them, but they don't have the contact nipples, so can't be easily used like a real AAAA.

N.Cuppa: got all three of your Cryptics, but probably wouldn't have gotten any if I didn't have such a tiny pool of possible answers. Those were HARD, in more ways than one!

SALADA was a "no brainer" for me because SALADA issued coin sets of baseball players in the 1962/1963 time frame. 221 players in the '62 set. Other sets were much smaller and today are pretty scarce, thus very expensive.

Lucina, thank you for the Euro/Lira explanation for Turkey.

Pasts SALAD shows up at all the barbecues up here. Give the ladies comfort in thinking they are protecting themselves from expanding waistlines.

Time to ignite the grill, first step in my saying "the Hell with my waistline."

You could hear a female & child talking in the background of that guy playing with the batteries on the lovely dining room table. Next you see the guy in the garage. I'm betting he cut out the part where his wife blew up because he'd charred her table and evicted him.

After nearly 50 years of marriage, a couple was lying in bed one evening, when the wife felt her husband, begin to massage her in ways he hadn't in quite some time. It almost tickled as his fingers started at her neck, and then began moving down past the small of her back. He then caressed her shoulders and neck, slowly worked his hand down, stopping just over her stomach. He then proceeded to place his hand on her left inner arm, working down her side, passing gently over her buttock and down her leg to her calf. Then, he proceeded up her thigh, stopping just at the uppermost portion of her leg. He continued in the same manner on her right side, then suddenly stopped, rolled over and became silent.As she had become quite aroused by this caressing, she asked in a loving voice, ‘Honey that was wonderful. Why did you stop?' To which he responded: 'I found the remote.'...

This is actual gameplay footage, the realism is amazing & the scenery is stunning.

If you do not watch the whole thing (30:00) at least watch 3 minutes at 20:00 in full screen. RAF Hawkinge emergency scramble while under attack is recreated by gamers. Each plane is manned by a real person while they talk to each other over "teamspeak."

Big problem: There is a 30-inch water main rupture on the UCLA campus. Water is gushing into the air, flowing down into the bottom levels of a parking structure, etc. Kids are wading through knee-deep water to get to classes. No fix yet.

Small problem: I had a haircut today. The hairs on my neck are itching more than usual, probably exacerbated by the hot, humid weather. Fix: Second shower of the day.

Since Nice Cuppa hasn't gotten back to us, here's what I came up with as solutions to their Cryptic clues. For those of you who think my Cryptic clues are bad, these would all probably be at home in a British newspaper, but are way more obscure than anything I'd write!

Good afternoon all,Good puzzle, good write up and fun links. Liked Marti's link to Madagascar...haven't seen that 1st one. Great perps for the few I did not know:salad a,Slye,myst and Lira. Had Jim before Jas.

I agreed about pasta salad, but I had not thought of macaroni salad as pasta.d'oh! I don't think anyone refers to it as a pasta salad.

Enjoying the cooler weather in Kauai this week. We left the humid 90's behind us.

Just finished an amazing mission, & stuck the landing. Wish I knew how to show the the gun camera footage!

Took off from Hawkinge in a Hurricane with 10 other planes to intercept 10 Me109s, lost track of my 1st target, but chased the 2nd 109 all over the sky! I must have used up half my gun magazine of 8 .303 caliber just missing him twisting & turning. He finally got away from me in a screaming dive. Thinking he lost me he attacked a group of Hurricanes attempting to land. I wish i could say i got him fair & square, but he turned right into me, climbing nose up into my dive he could not have seen me around is big engine. After all that ammo I wasted, a quick 1 second burst head on set him on fire.

The smoke was gray, not black like you would expect from an oil fire. I must have severed & ignited a fuel line...

Oh well, he jumped into the drink,,, & I think I will join Tinbeni in another...

CED, I watched that link twice. Amazing. That's a game? Wow! I'm beginning to understand why my adult children like computer games. Do you really have to be a pilot to participate in that? If so, a shame. I was in the Air Force in Nam, but I never got off the tarmac. It seems that there is a lot of the digital age passing me by. Oh, well.

I'm late, of course but thought I would add my two-cents.Thanks Lemony for checking in on me.

I'm working very hard with Physical Therapist in a pool so I can possibly walk better. My husband has been remodeling the basement (as his retirement project) and I haven't been able to see his work in person. He takes pictures for me.

Learned the difference between DIVAN and sofa today.

It was VASE not ewer today.

A PAJAMA PARTY was a Slumber Party at our house.

I love when "the girls" get together for a salad luncheon, including PASTA SALAD. Our guy were never crazy about salads.

Is whether or not you like TATs, a political subject? I see the air force is still sticking to their no TATs policy.

HAD A BAD DAY reminded me of children's books that we enjoyed around here,i.e. Alexander and the Terrible, No Good,Very Bad Day. Also " Could Be Worse?" MY twins (27 yrs old) were telling me today that they didn't know any of the cartoons their peers mention because they were reading, doing chores, or playing outside on their bicycles. I'll take that as a compliment, thank you.

Bluehen, my son got his degree in Airframe Mechanics and Avionic. He never got his pilot's license, but he and his friends play all the time with airplane simulators and such. He had to have another attachment at one time to participate on computer/TV set.My kids just laugh at me when I am amazed by such things.

CED, just watched flight simulator video finally and must say WOW!! It gave me the same chills I received watching 30-50 WWII era planes start they engines up one by one and take to the skies at Osh Kosh fly in a few years back.

Blue Iris: I agree about slumber party. Also, I much prefer potato salad to macaroni/pasta salad though I'll eat some if there is no potato salad.

I can imagine tats would not be looked upon favorably if one is applying for a job as a kindergarten teacher. Personally, a little tasteful tattoo doesn't bother me much anymore. Sleeves, where most of the skin is inked in, seems a bit much to me still.

I agree about WWII planes and such but I've said that before. Music too.